A federal higher court in Arkansas on Friday struck a block from the lower court of state abortion laws, citing opinion of Justice John Roberts in the Supreme Court case in June in which the court overturned the restrictive abortion laws of Louisiana declined.
In its ruling, a trio of judges at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said their decision to return some of Arkansas’ restrictions on abortion stemmed from “separate advice from Chief Justice Roberts in June Medical.”
While Roberts sat with the liberal justices of the court in decision 5-4, he wrote his own corresponding opinion, saying that his vote was accompanied by adhering to prior rulings.
“The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, present special circumstances, to treat matters equally,” Roberts wrote. “The Louisiana Act imposes a burden on access to abortion for the same reasons as those imposed by Texas law. Therefore, Louisiana law cannot stand among our predecessors. ”
The Arkansas judges noted that Roberts in his opinion held that “state and federal lawmakers [have] broad discretion to legislate in areas where medical and scientific uncertainty is “consistent with that decision.
The laws that were blocked by a district will apply in 21 days, August 28th. Among the laws are a restriction on the most common procedure used in second trimester abortions and a measure that allows a woman’s husband to have an abortion to pursue the doctor to stop the abortion.
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